GoHighLevel vs Keap – The Ultimate Showdown of Two Popular CRMs

In this article, we’ll examine two prominent tools for internet marketers and marketing agencies – GoHighLevel and Keap.

Both offer valuable features for businesses seeking powerful CRM and sales and marketing automation. However, some differences between them could influence your decision.

This comparison aims to provide an honest, thorough analysis of both platforms. We’ll explore each tool’s functionalities, user experience, and overall value to help you determine which one aligns best with your business’s needs and objectives.

What Does GoHighLevel Do?

GoHighLevel is an all-in-one platform for digital marketing agencies and professionals. It provides a streamlined approach to capturing leads, boosting revenue, and enhancing client communication.

Additionally, GoHighLevel provides features for creating sales funnels and landing pages, managing online appointments, and automating marketing and sales tasks, which are crucial for engagement and conversion. It’s also a strong fit for those aiming to develop a white-labeled SaaS business. 

While it’s perfect for agencies, freelancers and small businesses can also find value in this platform.

What Does Keap Do?

Keap, previously known as InfusionSoft, is a seasoned customer relationship management (CRM) player.

It combines sales and marketing automation and caters to small and medium businesses, including startups and e-commerce ventures.

Keap’s platform simplifies customer interactions and manages texting, emailing, and lead recording tasks.

Moreover, this platform stores all customer contact information and interactions in one place, allowing you more efficient management and quick access.

GoHighLevel and Keap Similarities

Here’s what you’ll love about these two platforms:

• Powerful CRM. Both platforms offer comprehensive CRM functionalities, including contact and pipeline management.
• Automation Features. Keap and GoHighLevel provide automation tools, allowing users to create workflows for email campaigns, lead nurturing, and other marketing tasks.
• Marketing Tools. Each platform offers email campaigns, SMS marketing, and landing pages.
• User Experience. Both platforms focus on delivering a user-friendly experience to their audience.
• Integration Capabilities. They offer integration options, albeit Keap has more extensive integrations than GoHighLevel.
• Free Trial. Both platforms offer a free trial period for new users.
• Analytics and Reporting. Both Keap and GoHighLevel provide reporting and analytics tools to track the performance of marketing campaigns and customer interactions.

GoHighLevel vs. Keap Differences Overview 

• Target Audience. GoHighLevel targets marketing professionals and agencies, while Keap is ideal for small businesses.
• Complexity. GoHighLevel has more advanced features but a steeper learning curve, whereas Keap offers a more beginner-friendly interface.
• Page-Building and Marketing Tools. GoHighLevel provides a broader range of tools, including website and funnel builders and social media features, which Keap lacks.
• Pricing. GoHighLevel is more affordable than Keap.
• Scalability. GoHighLevel supports unlimited business accounts, contacts, and team members at a fixed cost. Plus, it offers white-labeling for desktop and mobile apps on its higher plans. Meanwhile, Keap’s costs escalate as you add more team members and contacts.

GoHighLevel vs Keap – Pricing Plans

GoHighLevel

GoHighLevel technically offers three plans, but the other one is only visible once you sign up for any of the two:

• Agency Starter – $97/month
• Agency Unlimited/ Freelancer – $297/ month
• Agency Pro plan – $497/month

The Agency Starter account provides all the core tools like contact management, workflow and campaign builders, 2-way SMS and email communication, social media planning, and pipeline management.

This plan is perfect for individual marketers who require a solid toolset for marketing and client interaction, minus the complexity of more advanced features.

The Freelancer plan introduces additional capabilities, including a branded desktop app and primary API access. It’s for marketing agencies ready to offer a more personalized experience and engage in complex marketing strategies.

Meanwhile, the Agency Pro plan expands on all the features of the Freelancer plan by adding SaaS Mode, rebilling for email, phone, and text services, split testing, advanced API access, agent reporting, and an AI conversational bot.

This plan is designed for marketing agencies that require more tools to manage and grow their operations effectively.

Keap

Keap also offers three pricing tiers:

• Pro plan – $199/month
• Max plan – $289/month
• Ultimate plan – $349/month (but currently at $289/month)

Starting with the Pro plan, users are provided fundamental tools for email marketing, sales and workflow automation, lead capture, CRM, and more. This plan is crafted for smaller teams looking to automate essential business processes.

The Max plan builds upon the Pro, adding advanced lead optimization, enhanced landing pages, e-commerce tools, and advanced reporting. It’s structured for growing teams needing sophisticated e-commerce and reporting capabilities.

The Ultimate plan includes premium CRM and sales management tools, advanced marketing and sales tools, and custom user access controls. This plan is aimed at larger teams needing comprehensive workflows and powerful automation tools.

Which Is More Affordable?

GoHighLevel presents a more economical starting point with its Agency Starter plan at $97 monthly. Moreover, it allows you to manage unlimited business accounts and team members for a fixed price of $297/month. Meanwhile, Keap charges you more as you add more people to your team and grow your contact list.

GoHighLevel vs Keap – User Interface and Ease of Use

GoHighLevel

GoHighLevel’s interface, while not the most intuitive due to its extensive toolkit, has seen significant enhancements over time.

The adjustment period might be shorter if you’re familiar with other marketing software. But if you’re new or non-techy, then it will take a little more time.

The platform provides a detailed client dashboard that separates agency-level and sub-account views.

The tools are logically categorized, so you can quickly access the required features based on what you want to do.

GoHighLevel adopts a simple aesthetic that can be customized to reflect your brand’s style. However, the platform’s minimalistic default design is enough if you want to focus solely on functionality.

One feature I find missing is integrated tutorials. Those helpful prompts or icons that guide you through each function would enhance the user experience.

Overall, the learning curve is more pronounced for beginners, but generally, GoHighLevel remains user-friendly.

Keap

Keap’s interface exudes a more streamlined and accessible experience, particularly appealing to beginners or those with simpler needs.

With just one central dashboard, it removes the complexity of managing multiple access layers. Moreover, it provides what I’m looking for in GoHighLevel. It has a more straightforward onboarding process with the help of a comprehensive trial guide with step-by-step tasks complemented by instructional videos.

This informative welcome approach ensures you can use all the tools efficiently.

Which Has a More User-Friendly Interface?

Although this is a close round, I’d say that Keap takes a slight edge with its in-depth trial guide.

GoHighLevel vs Keap – Sales and Marketing Features

GoHighLevel

GoHighLevel provides various tools for an agency or business owner who wants to generate leads better and boost sales.

With features that extend beyond the typical email marketing, it includes a reliable SMS marketing platform and allows 2-way communication that ensures clients are engaged on their preferred channels.

Moreover, it enables call tracking, so you’ll know where your leads are coming from (i.e., which landing page, paid campaign, or website.) This can help you create wiser marketing strategies and get a more significant ROI.

GoHighLevel also has integrated lead capture tools, such as forms, surveys, and calendar scheduling systems, that work seamlessly to secure and manage leads.

But it has more built-in tools you can use to gain more traffic, leads, and potential customers. For instance, you can swiftly create websites, sales funnels, and landing pages using its templates and the drag-and-drop editor inside its page builder.

Additionally, you can schedule social media posts directly from GoHighLevel to your social platforms like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and even WhatsApp. Tracking ads and even customer replies aren’t an issue with this platform.

For sales, you can create invoices, accept payments through Stripe, and provide product discounts. And with the addition of online store functionalities, you can now manage a storefront and track products, streamlining the sales cycle further.

Overall, all the features you need to manage and grow your digital marketing efforts effectively are available at GoHighLevel

Keap

Keap’s pipeline management offers a clear overview of the customer’s progress, which is critical for consistent follow-up and nurturing leads toward a sale. It also works well with automation, so you don’t have to worry about missing leads.

Moreover, Keap excels in its email and text marketing capabilities, allowing you to connect with customers directly. It will enable you to provide replies through texting. However, it only allows you to send email broadcasts and doesn’t give you the right to reply to emails inside the platform.

This is such a bummer knowing that direct interaction through email can help you be more efficient and effective in getting more leads.

While the platform offers a form and landing page builder, it stops short of providing more extensive digital marketing solutions such as website building or blog creation.

It doesn’t even offer a funnel builder, which is essential in guiding potential customers through the buying journey and turning them into sales. This limitation means that, as a marketing agency, you may need to integrate other tools to deliver a complete online experience.

Additionally, agencies might find themselves at a disadvantage without direct integration into social media platforms. In an era where social media presence is crucial, this lack of integration could lead to missed opportunities to reach broader audiences effectively.

Which Has Better Sales and Marketing Tools?

GoHighLevel‘s capabilities in managing a more comprehensive range of digital marketing aspects make it a more versatile choice for generating leads. With its new and improved e-commerce functionality, it can now accommodate businesses running an online store for physical products.

GoHighLevel vs Keap – Customer Relationship Management

GoHighLevel

GoHighLevel shines as a CRM platform because it can accommodate increasing leads without hefty fees. If you’re in growth mode, this is essential for expanding the customer base.

The platform’s Smart lists make contact management way more efficient. It allows targeted manual tasks, such as sending specific emails and calls to selected contacts.

Additionally, the Smart lists enable you to add and remove tags for better audience targeting, view recent activities for timely follow-ups, and attach notes and documents for comprehensive contact management.

If you want to improve your sales process and track leads with your team, GoHighLevel has a pipeline management similar to Keap. It’s accessible to your sales team, so they’ll be in the loop.

The best part is these CRM features are accessible across all your sub-accounts. You can use it for your agency, and your clients can use it for their business. And GoHighLevel’s mobile app allows you to access them on the go.

Keap

Keap’s CRM feature is also helpful and offers much of what GoHighLevel has.

Its contact management system organizes customer information, giving you a complete view of interactions and histories. This feature ensures personalized communication, which is crucial for building strong relationships.

The sales pipeline management in Keap tracks leads effectively, providing insights into your sales process.

With segmentation and targeted email marketing, Keap enables focused campaigns that resonate with your audience, leading to improved engagement.

The only (and probably the biggest catch) is it doesn’t offer a consolidated inbox like what GoHighLevel offers. With GoHighLevel, you can read and reply to your clients and leads across multiple channels in one dashboard.

Which Is the Better CRM Platform?

GoHighLevel. It has more comprehensive features for managing client relationships, offering unlimited contact storage, advanced segmentation, and the flexibility to manage various tasks across sub-accounts.

GoHighLevel vs Keap – Automation Features

GoHighLevel Automation Features

I like that GoHighLevel allows automation in many aspects of the platform.

You can set up single or multi-channel campaigns to automate your marketing processes. This includes email marketing, social media, SMS, and more. It also allows adding conditions and filters to make your workflows more effective.

For example, you may use specific text keywords to trigger automated responses. And if you miss a call, you can set up a system to automatically send an SMS, keeping the connection with potential clients alive.

The automation extends to social media, forms, webhooks, appointments, and payments. And you can mix and match and choose from various triggers and actions.

It’s pretty solid overall, as you can create a complex process without breaking a sweat.

Keap Automation Features

Meanwhile, Keap offers basic and advanced automation. The former one uses “when-then scenarios.”

For example, when a form is submitted, it can automatically send notifications and confirmation emails. It’s useful if you want a simple way to manage tasks and follow-ups.

Its advanced automation looks a little similar to GoHighLevel. However, it doesn’t offer as many actions and triggers. The processes you can do with it mostly revolve around sales and marketing, particularly emails, pipeline updates, and sales.

Which Offers More Advanced Automation?

GoHighLevel. It has a more solid workflow system, allowing you to intricately integrate and automate a wider range of tasks and processes, from social media and SMS to appointments and payments.

GoHighLevel vs Keap – Customer Support and Training

GoHighLevel

GoHighLevel offers diverse customer support channels like a help center, live chat, and phone support, which are known for their responsiveness.

They provide video walkthroughs, guides, articles, live training events, and webinars for training.

However, 24/7 support is exclusive to agency owners. If you’re managing client accounts, this means you need to support them, as they can’t be accommodated by the GoHighLevel team. This can be challenging, especially when dealing with technical issues.

Keap

Keap mirrors GoHighLevel in support options. However, it extends it to your clients. So, unlike with GoHighLevel, you don’t have to worry about directly supporting your clients for Keap-related issues. They also mentioned that their team can resolve over 91% of the problems in less than 24 hours.

Keap also has its Keap Academy, offering extensive online courses, training, and webinars for small business growth. These resources provide in-depth knowledge and support not just for you but also for your clients.

Which Offers Better Customer Support and Training?

Keap wins here. It offers better support not only for you but for your clients. Also, Keap’s help center and learning resources are more detailed and updated than GoHighLevel.

GoHighLevel vs Keap – Pros and Cons

GoHighLevel Pros

• Scalability. With features for reselling like SaaS mode, unlimited accounts, and team members, it’s ideal for businesses looking to expand their reach.
• White-Label Options. It offers a white-label mobile app and desktop options, essential if you want to resell the platform.
• All-in-One Marketing Platform. GoHighLevel provides many tools, including website building, social media integration (such as Facebook Ads), and functionalities Keap lacks.
• Robust Automation. From streamlining tasks, internal notifications, and lead capturing to more advanced automation like webhooks and third-party connections, GoHighLevel offers extensive automation capabilities.
• Unlimited Contact Storage. Unlike many platforms, GoHighLevel allows unlimited contact storage, making expanding your customer base easier without extra fees.

GoHighLevel Cons

• Learning Curve. Despite being user-friendly, there’s a learning curve involved, mainly due to the wide range of features.
• Limited Customization. Businesses with more complex needs might find the customization options limited.
• Limited Reporting. Reporting capabilities are basic compared to other marketing platforms, which might not suit businesses needing detailed analytics.

Related: HighLevel Pros and Cons (Extended)

Keap Pros

• User-Friendly Interface. Keap offers a straightforward and intuitive interface, making it easy for beginners and small businesses to navigate.
• E-commerce Integration. It offers a great list of e-commerce functionalities with integrated invoicing, upselling, payment processing, and more.
• Excellent Customer Support. Keap is known for its high-quality customer service and extensive training resources.

Keap Cons 

• Limited Scalability for Larger Teams. Its structure may not be as scalable for larger agencies or businesses with extensive client lists.
• No White-Labeling. Unlike GoHighLevel, Keap doesn’t offer white-labeling features, limiting agency branding options.
• Less Comprehensive in Marketing Tools. While robust in CRM, Keap lacks advanced marketing tools and integrations, such as social media automation and funnel building.
• Limited Customization. Some users might find the customization options in Keap restrictive.

FAQs

What’s the Main Difference between GoHighLevel and Keap?

GoHighLevel suits marketing agencies and freelancers handling many clients. Keap fits small businesses focusing on their growth.

Do GoHighLevel and Keap Offer a Free Plan?

Neither GoHighLevel nor Keap has a free plan. They offer a two-week trial, which GoHighLevel sometimes extends for some users.

Related:

• HighLevel Black Friday Deals

Which Is More Affordable for Marketers? GoHighLevel or Keap?

GoHighLevel is less costly. Unlike Keap, its higher plans don’t charge extra for more contacts, sub-accounts, or team members.

Can I Resell GoHighLevel and Keap?

You can resell GoHighLevel through its white-label feature. Keap, however, doesn’t offer reselling.

Conclusion

That’s it for our in-depth comparison of GoHighLevel and Keap. What do you think about these two platforms?

Each has its strengths and is undoubtedly worth the investment, but your choice largely depends on what aligns best with your needs.

GoHighLevel is affordable and offers a comprehensive package of agency tools. Thanks to its unlimited accounts, team members, and reselling capabilities, it suits marketing agencies or freelancers managing multiple clients.

Keap, on the other hand, shines with its user-friendly interface and extensive CRM features. It’s ideal for small businesses, providing solid e-commerce integrations and comprehensive learning resources through Keap Academy.

Whichever tool you choose, you’ll get a powerful set of features for lead management and sales and marketing needs.

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